A range of bestselling writers, including Ruth Rendell, Conn Iggulden, Maeve Binchy, Richard Branson, and Joanna Trollope, are all taking part in a major new literacy initiative for World Book Day this year. Quick Reads, an innovative series of short and accessible fiction and non-fiction, are aimed at the millions of people in the UK who just don’t have time to read or who struggle to finish a book.

The first twelve books in the series will be published on World Book Day 2nd March 2006, with a further ten published during Adult Learners’ Week on 25th May. The books will be as good as anything currently available in a High Street bookshop but short - no longer than 128 pages, accessible and pacy.

Each Quick Read book will cost only £2.99. Up to five million £1 vouchers, redeemable for a year against any of the Quick Reads titles, will be distributed to encourage people to pick up, read and enjoy a book. The vouchers will be distributed via Further Education colleges and adult learner centres for people already enrolled or enrolling on a Basic Skills Adult Literacy course, through the TUC, a range of employers, and will be downloadable from a range of websites, including the BBC RaW site.

The aim of Quick Reads is to open new worlds for people, to make reading not just a skill, but a habit. Around 12 million adults in the UK struggle with reading; the aim is to take these emergent readers along with those who have simply lost the reading habit and feel they don’t have time to read, and with help from bestselling writers, turn them into addicted readers.

As author, Val McDermid, says,

“The joy of books should be something we can all share. Taking part in Quick Reads is an exciting opportunity to reach out to new readers.”

Mick Dennis, whose Quick Read The Team is a behind-the-scenes look at Premiership football, comments,

“I am often put off picking up heavy tomes and frequently give up after a few pages of daunting texts, so I am exhilarated at the thought of being able to help entice people into the world of books.”

The twelve titles published on March 2nd are:

Don’t Make Me Laugh by Patrick Augustus (The X Press)
Star Sullivan by Maeve Binchy (Orion)
Seven Steps to Change Your Life by John Bird (Ebury)
Screw it, Let’s Do It by Richard Branson (Virgin)
A Woman Walks in a Bar by Rowan Coleman (Arrow)
The Team by Mick Dennis with the Premier League (Corgi)
Someone Like Me by Tom Holt (Orbit)
Blackwater by Conn Iggulden (Harper Collins)
Hell Island by Matthew Reilly (Pan)
The Thief by Ruth Rendell (published by Arrow)
The Book Boy by Joanna Trollope (Bloomsbury)
Chickenfeed by Minette Walters (Macmillan)

Quick Read authors published in the May are: Damien Lewis, Andy McNab, Mike Philips, Tom Holland, Danny Wallace, Courttia Newland, Val McDermid, John Francome, Hunter Davies and a title from the BBC based on Dr Who.

Gail Rebuck, Chief Executive of The Random House Group, who is spearheading the campaign, comments,

“Our job is to take emergent readers, those who haven’t the time to read or who have never really felt comfortable with reading, and make them addicted readers, to make reading not just a skill, but a habit.”

The Quick Reads campaign has already attracted widespread private and public-sector support from across the publishing, bookselling and printing industries. The DfES (Department for Education and Skills), NIACE (National Institute of Adult and Continuing Education), the BBC, the TUC, the National Literary Trust, the National Reading Campaign, the Vital Link, the Reading Agency, and the FA Premier League are all Quick Read partners.

“I've never read a book in my life, but I've read three Quick Reads, we swapped them amongst ourselves. I started reading during the day I read all evening, and took the book to bed with me - even though my husband laughed at me for reading a book." Parent in a Family Learning Class

The Quick Reads campaign has received funding from the DfES, Arts Council England, the WHSmith Group Charitable Trust, World Book Day, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and National Book Tokens.

www.worldbookday.com